


The Mechanisms Versus Grifter's Bone

by WillowWispFlame



Series: So Sings a Song of Slaughter [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Minor Character Death, Slaughter Avatar Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Mechanisms Are Grifter's Bone, The Mechanisms Were The Archivist's College Band, The Mechanisms!Basira, The Mechanisms!Jon, The Mechanisms!Jordan Kennedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24560551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowWispFlame/pseuds/WillowWispFlame
Summary: What was supposed to be a quiet night after a successful gig at a local venue turns into a massacre.The Mechanisms deal with the problem.
Relationships: Basira Hussain & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: So Sings a Song of Slaughter [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775218
Comments: 26
Kudos: 296
Collections: So Sings a Song of Slaughter





	The Mechanisms Versus Grifter's Bone

The Mechanisms were packing up for the night. The rising band had a good crowd tonight, not as many returning fans as they’d wanted, but at least one or two from the audience had shouted, “First Mate!” back at them during Jonny’s introduction.  _ The Good Ship _ had turned out to be a successful venue that they hoped to return to in the future. They’d sold a few copies of their album, and at least five t-shirts to the crowd before it had filtered out. Now, only a couple dozen, including the Mechanisms, were left in the bar. 

Ivy Alexandria was chatting amiably with Marius von Raum as she cleaned her flute, running a cloth over its keys and inside the thin tube. Marius was giving the strings on his fiddle a check before storing the instrument in its case. 

Gunpowder Tim and Ashes O'Reilly were off in a corner, stacking the bands’ supplies and stored instruments. The Toy Soldier stepped back inside from the door to the alley next to them, taking a seat on one of the metal chairs scattered around the back. Ashes was chatting about some recent experiences in the police academy. 

As Jonny d’Ville held the curtain aside for DrumBot Brian to wheel his drum set backstage, he could not help but notice the other band climbing onto the stage.

“Hey crew,” he called. “Was there supposed to be another band playing after us?”

The others all frown and shrug, making uncertain noises. None of them had heard anything about the band setting up on stage. They all crowded closer to take a peek through the curtains with Jonny. 

The front liner was slight, his short stature and thin limbs making him look almost elvish. The large brown coat hung over his shoulders only exemplified how small he was. The rest of the band towered over him in comparison, all long limbs and stiff motions. The keyboard set up in front of him was crimson red, with black keys. As they watched, his fingers ghosted over the keys, barely touching their surfaces.

The bartender on the other side of the room was eyeing the stage warily, keeping up her steady wiping of the bar and reaching towards the walkie talkie strapped to her belt.

Raphaella la Cognizi pushed open the door backstage, having returned from the restroom. Her wire and cloth wings briefly got caught on the doorframe as she pushed her way inside. “What are you all looking at,” she said before being cut off by the sound of music.

The introductory chords of the mystery band’s song wafted over them like heat from an open oven door. They all froze in the moment, caught up in the beauty of it. One of the band members had drawn his bow across his cello’s strings, the others following with their keyboard and flute and strumming guitar. 

The tranquility was over in a moment as the Mechanisms felt something shift in their bones and the band began the first verse of their song. As one, their blood rushed as it never had before, even in the midst of their most adrenaline-rushing songs. If they could have described it in the moment, it would have felt like a barbarian’s battle rage, like the moment a soldier realizes that he has to fight or die. It was the scariest, most thrilling moment of their lives. 

A scream ran out from the audience as they turned towards each other, strangers grappling in the dim lighting. A crash sounded from the bar as its tender broke a bottle and stabbed at the poor soul sitting closest. The security guard entered from the kitchen and took a swing at a man who had frozen in shock with a beer held up to his lips. A woman struck out at the man closest to her with what looked like a box cutter produced from her work overalls, carving bloody lines across his chest before pushing him through the swinging door and turning back to the fray.

The Mechanisms shivered as the discordant sounds crashed through the bar, still focused on the four-man band on stage. With a roar, Raphaella pushed at their backs, and they came to the collective decision to rush on stage and follow their bloodlust to its source. 

They double teamed each of the musicians. Jonny and Gunpowder Tim grappled the front liner, tearing at his coat and knocking the keyboard into the crowd as the man struggled to continue his beautiful verses. Ivy and Ashes rushed the flute player, Ashes breaking the flimsy metal over a knee and Ivy clawing at the tall man’s face. Brian and Raphaella crashed into the cello player, the Drumbot’s foot crunching the instrument’s wood like plywood and Raphaella pulling the wire of her wings around the cellist's throat like a noose. Marius and the Toy Soldier ripped the guitar from the last band member’s hands, hitting him over the head with it like a mallet. One by one, the singers’ voices cut out into screams as the Mechanisms tore into them, and the Mechs answered with their own battle cries. The bands fought savagely, bruising and hitting. Despite the numbers against them, it seemed as if the enemy band was successfully pushing back, when suddenly Ashes’ training took over and Jonny’s prop gun was ripped from his waist and struck over the temple of the flutist. Two more members of the band were taken out in quick succession as Jonny’s hands closed around the throat of the frontliner and squeezed. 

The man gargled something unintelligible as Jonny stared him in the eyes. He grabbed at Jonny’s hands, trying to loosen the grip, but Jonny held on with unnatural strength. He tried to hit Jonny in the face, but was too weak to do anything but cut his cheek with a silver ring. Finally, the man slowly stopped struggling, and the light died from his eyes. 

The Mechanisms came back to themselves, blood spattering their faces. Their knuckles were bruised, faces cut, and clothes torn, but their faces held the delight of bloodlust until they looked over the rest of the bar. Ivy emptied her stomach at the sight of the bodies, and they stumbled their way to the back as they tried to scrum it out of their minds. Jonny looked down at the man he had strangled in shock, absently noting that he was wearing a ratty old t-shirt that had a faded femur emblazoned on the front.

Ashes was the one to take charge, ordering everyone to clean themselves up and pile into the two cars parked in the alley with their untouched instruments. They murmured to themselves that they had left before the carnage had happened, drawing up excuses against what they had seen and done. In the front seat of Ashes’s stationwagon, Jon turned and said, “Basira, that. That happened. That was unnatural. Everyone in that bar,” he swallowed. “They all attacked each other. We killed that other band.”

Basira, Ashes, glanced at Jon for only a moment before refocusing on the dark road. She snapped a nod and swallowed deeply. 

The car went silent, Gunpowder Tim and Raphaelle going quiet in the back seat. The car hit a pothole, causing the instruments in the back to shift loudly.

**Author's Note:**

> Aka, what if by killing Grifter's Bone, the Mechanisms became the new Grifter's Bone?


End file.
